Hello tom.
While I understand the various reasons behind your annoyence with licensing
and other issues, these weren't the reasons given by the lead developer of
Dragonslayer.
I actually had several conversations with him, sinse I felt he had a lot of
enthusiasm, and indeed potentially good ideas of implementing interesting
games even if he was just learning his craft, ----- pluss he was a genuinely
nice chap to talk to.
After this great display of enthusiasm though, he literally just dropped off
the map, and I don't just mean in terms of programming I mean in terms of
the games community in general.
He no longer posted on the forum, nor indeed when i E-mailed him did he
answer.
At a later date, another friend of mine happened to run across him on Skype,
and asked why, to which he dismissively replied that now he "had a life" so
wasn't bothered about accessible games anymore.
the fact that one can be interested in computer games and indeed have a
life, interests, and friends outside them had planely not occurred to him at
all.
while he on average showed a mature atitude, this sounded to me more a case
of teenaged anxt than anything else, ----- he certainly never voiced the
concerns your raising.
Beware the Grue!
Dark.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 1:54 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] dragonSlayers games
Hi Dark,
Being a game developer myself I think I can understand the lead
developer's reasons well enough. It is pretty easy to get disenchanted and
out right discouraged when creating audio games. I'm obviously a lot older
and more seasoned than the lead developer for Dragon Slayer Games was, but
even I feel like hanging it up from time to time. Although, my major gripe
has to do with licensing issues.
When I first started writing accessible games I imagined writing games
like those I use to play in the good old days when I still could see. I
figured as the common person does that I would be able to make my own
versions of Double Dragon, Castlevania, Tomb Raider, Star Wars, whatever,
and the mainstream companies would leave me alone. No such luck. i found
out the hard way when I got threatened with a law suit over Montezuma's
Revenge, and now i feel pretty bitter about that. Especially, considering
the fact that current laws grants these companies nearly godlike control
over their copyrights, trade marks, and creations regardless of
accessibility concerns. That alone killed many of my hopes and dreams for
creating audio games.
Then, there is the technical aspects to deal with. If a developer wants to
specifically program for Windows the sky is the limit. However, over the
passed couple of years I have joined the ranks of blind computer users
that use alternative operating systems such as Linux and Mac OS.
This makes writing games tricky because it is hard to find any programming
API, specification, that is supported on Mac, Linux, and Windows. There
are some good ones out there like the FMOD Audio API, but it isn't free
for commercial developers. Licensing can be steep, and a certain
percentage of all sales will have to go into licensing the API. This isn't
necessarily an acceptable situation given USA Games doesn't make all that
much off our games to begin with. Basically, enough just to properly
license, sounds, music, and perhaps an API like FMOD if we can afford it.
Finally, after all that there are complete jerks out there that will
happily crack and redistribute the game to every disreputable blind person
on the planet. To them it doesn't matter how long it took to create the
game, how much it cost the developer to license this or that, and so on.
All of that means nothing to them. Instead the game is something they can
hack, crack, and pass around like bubble gum cards.
So, bottom line, there is a lot a developer can get disenchanted about. It
is hard work for very little financial gain, and sometimes little
recognition. I do it because I generally like the work despite the
troubles, bologna, and other crap I have to put up with.
Cheers!
---
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